A substantial and increasing number of individuals, especially among the elderly, must be either restrained or closely supervised because they create various risks, especially to themselves, if they are allowed to wander. This holds true even though such patients usually are not violent. For example, people suffering from severe Alzheimer's disease, senility, or dementia often lose the ability to reason or remember. Such people may wander off and become lost or get into threatening situations, especially late at night, when the people who normally supervise them are asleep and when institutions are not staffed to provide one-on-one care.
Due partly to the current shortcomings in the restraining options available to keep such people from hurting themselves, such patients often must be institutionalized, if the family can afford it or has adequate insurance (as used herein, institutions includes government-run facilities as well as privately operated nursing homes). If institutionalization is infeasible or undesired for financial, familial, or other reasons, caring for such patients (who often require constant attention) imposes a tremendous physical and emotional strain on the family or other caregivers, which often lasts for years with no hope of improvement.
Various devices and methods have been developed for restraining mentally impaired patients who, although not violent or acutely dangerous, need to be restrained primarily for their own safety. However, none of the devices currently available are fully satissfactory, and some suffer from severe shortcomings. Vest restraints and various types of straps or belts (such as "Posey" belts) are often wrapped around the arms, legs, or torsos of such patients, but they are highly unsatisfactory for several reasons They are often uncomfortable and can severely agitate the patients they are designed to restrain, causing them to struggle as hard as possible to escape.
In addition, the restraints previously used can inflict a severe loss of dignity on patients who want, need, and deserve respect and kindness. If a patient in an institution or nursing home shares a room with another patient who has a visitor, or if visitors come through on a tour, any visitors who see the straps that hold and tie down a restrained patient often shrink back out of fear and anxiety, wondering whether the restrained person might be violent or criminally insane. It can lead to intense discomfort, causing some visitors to refrain from visiting again and depriving patients of the companionship and pleasant distractions of having company.
In addition, there is a need for an improved restraint for surgical patients emerging from anesthesia. Such patients often awake in a disoriented and bewildered condition and, without having any desire to cause any difficulty, they occasionally try to get up and can tear out stitches. Such people need a gentle restraint that will keep them from trying to get out of bed.
The object of the subject invention is to provide an improved device for protectively restraining patients who suffer from various types of mental impairment. The inventors are a Nursing Home Administrator and a Licensed Social Worker who have extensive experience with patients who need this type of protective restraint. Based on that experience, they have developed and refined a restraining device which provides greater comfort and dignity than any other restraint previously available. This device is relatively quick and simple to secure in place, and to release when appropriate. It is safe, reliable, more comfortable, and less intrusive than belts, straps, or other devices of the prior art. In addition, it provides few or no external signs of being a restraining device, which provides maximal dignity and privacy for the patient without sacrificing safety and security.